1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cooling devices, and is concerned in particular with an improved water box for cooling hot rolled long products such as rods and bars in a rolling mill.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Early water box designs conventionally employed non-split cylindrical nozzles arranged end to end and connected to underlying fixed manifolds or "headers". The non-split configuration of the nozzles greatly complicated the task of removing cobbles from the water boxes. Additional problems included rapid wear, thus necessitating frequent nozzle replacement at considerable cost to the mill operator. Also, extensive inventories of differently sized and configured nozzles were required in order to handle the full range of products being rolled by the mill.
In later water box designs, split nozzles were introduced in order to facilitate cobble removal. However, the mating nozzle segments consisted of complicated and expensive investment castings. These also were prone to rapid wear, and needed to be specially sized to handle the various product sizes being rolled by the mill. Thus, the mill owner continued to be saddled with high replacement and inventory costs.
The principal object of the present invention is to dramatically reduce replacement and inventory costs associated with the operation and maintenance of water boxes in a rolling mill.